1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of computer systems and more specifically, but not exclusively, to offloading the processing of a network protocol stack.
2. Background Information
In typical computer architecture, the initialization and configuration of the computer system by firmware, such as the system Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), is commonly referred to as the pre-boot phase. The pre-boot phase is generally defined as the time between a processor reset and loading of an Operating System (OS). At the start of pre-boot, it is up to the code in the firmware to initialize the platform to the point that an operating system may be loaded off of media, such as a hard disk.
The start of the OS load begins the period commonly referred to as OS runtime. During OS runtime, the firmware may act as an interface between software and hardware components of a computer system as well as handle system-related tasks. As computer systems have become more sophisticated, the operational environment between the OS level and the hardware level is generally referred to as the system firmware.
The processing of a network protocol stack, such as a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) stack, may consume much of the processing power of a Central Processing Unit (CPU). The processing of the network protocol stack by the CPU reduces the processing speed of other applications by the CPU. This situation can be exasperated in a server system that may have to process numerous network transactions concurrently.